Naked in England 2014

June 30 – July 1, 2014 Studland UK

Okay, finally I went nude birding. It wasn’t that cold and well we went to Knoll Beach near Studlands. There are quite a few spots to bird au naturel in Europe, almost too many even in Great Britain. The more I think about it the more that doing a nude big year in Europe may not be so odd. This particular beach is on the English Channel on the Cornwall side of Southhampton and is billed as the prettiest nude beach in England. The wind was a bit excessive but we hid in the dunes.

Birds seen:

Black headed gull, Herring Gull, Meadow Pipit (life first), Great Cormorant, common tern, lesser black backed gull, carrion crow, wood pigeon, and this oddity, a Mediterranean Gull, not a rarity but there are not that many in the UK

No black on the wings and blood red beak,

We also went to Stonehenge, lots of people there but as ever quite the impressive place.

there was another corvid species, the Rook being picturesque around the 5000 plus year old stones. There were also sky larks in the nearby fields which we walked through.

They moved the parking lot and the place seems to be busier than I’ve read.

Down at the coast we climbed the hill and saw France. The Hobbies (a falcon) rode the thermals, kind of tough to identify this bird.

This immature had a couple of friends. We saw the Eurasian Sparrowhawk take a House sparrow and then on top after seeing a common whitethroat and a chiffchaff, we spotted Yellowhammers singing everywhere

where did they get that name? It is one of my favorites that is for sure.

Harry Rocks is also a nice name…

94 species of birds for the trip. I had some good nude birding. Some good sightseeing. The oddest thing in Britain is the lack of “fish and chips” We tried two pubs and they were both out. Seemed odd. We watched some good soccer in the World Cup and well had a good trip. cheers love,

Olaf

3 thoughts on “Naked in England 2014”

Good to see you all here in Blighty, obviously you have just scratched the surface of all the places to see and yes we do have a fair selection of birds to spot. Not sure why the Gold Finches were so camera shy as soon as you turned up, perhaps next time?